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Rivers of London series
Alternately called the Peter Grant series, is written by Ben Aaronovitch. Genres Urban Fantasy, Mystery Series Description or Overview These are the adventures of Peter Grant, a young officer in the Metropolitan Police; who, following an unexpected encounter with a ghost, is recruited into the small branch of the Met that deals with magic and the supernatural. There he trains to be a wizard and to solve supernatural crimes. Lead's Species *Wizard Police Officer Primary Supe *Wizards / Magicians / Sorcerers What Sets it Apart * Narrative Type and Narrators *First person narrative by protagonist Peter Grant. Books in Series Rivers of London series ** 0.5 Nightingale: London 1966 # Midnight Riot (2/2011) #* 1.5 The Home Crowd Advantage #* 1.6 Tobias Winter - Meckenheim 2012 # Moon Over Soho (3/2011) # Whispers Under Ground (7/2012) # Broken Homes (2013) #* 4.6 Reynolds – Florence, Az. 2014 # Foxglove Summer (Jan 2015) #* 5.5 The Furthest Station (28 September 2017) #* 5.6 King of the Rats # The Hanging Tree (Nov 19, 2015) #* 6.5 A Rare Book of Cunning Device # Lies Sleeping (6 November 2018) #* 7.5 The October Man (novella) (31 May 2019) # False Value (20 February 2020) Shorts, Anthologies and Guides * 5.5. The Home Crowd Advantage (2014) Themes World Building Setting Alternate London Places * Hampstead * Royal Opera House * Bow Street * Richmond * Belgravia * Covent Garden * Hendon * Purley * Chertsey * Teddington Lock * Ic3 * Soho * Central London * Café De Paris * Oxford * Berwick Street * Trocadero Centre * Norwich * Colchester * Dean Street * Australia * Britain Supernatural Elements Wizards, Magicians, apprentice magician (sorcerer’s apprentice), Gods and Goddesses, ghost, , , , Glossary * Formae: in Latin—One of various mental constructs which make up "spells" — shapes in your mind that have an effect on the physical universe. As you learn each one you associate it with a word. Groups & Organizations: * London Metropolitan Police: "Scotland Yard" * The Folly: Unofficial name for the ultra-secret unit of the Metropolitan Police dealing with magic, officially known by various uninformative numbered designations, and carry on the tradition of Isaac Newton * British Transport Police: * Transport For London: World ✥ The public knows little about magic, even though the city teems with ghosts and spirits. Within the law enforcement system, an Agreement has been reached that puts Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, a powerful magician, in charge of keeping London's magical world under control. Nightingale is essentially, a one-man magical law enforcement unit that is officially called the Economic and Specialist Crime Unit 9 (ESC9), but is nicknamed the Folly, after the name of the huge old mansion that Nightingale uses as his home and his headquarters. Nightingale lives alone in the Folly, with only the company of his not-quite-human maid, Molly, for company. Into this world steps Peter Grant, a young probationary constable in his mid-twenties. Very early in book 1, Peter moves into the Folly and becomes an apprentice magician under Nightingale's tutelage. In this world, magic does not come through genetic heritage; it comes from hard practice. In this world, magic does not come through genetic heritage; it comes from hard practice. Here, Aaronovitch explains, "Magic, as it is practised by Nightingale and Grant, is not something you're born with. It is, as someone suggested, like playing a violin, anyone can be trained to do it and while some may have a natural aptitude it takes years of practise just to get a decent tune and...more than a lifetime to truly master." (Click HERE to read the entire on-line interview that is the source of this quotation.) (Note: Aaronovitch uses the British spelling for the word "practise.") The source of magical learning in this world is Sir Isaac Newton. Nightingale explains to Peter that although Newton did not invent magic, he did codify its basic principles in his book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Artes Magicis. As the series progresses, Peter gradually learns more and more about using magic. As he explains, "You do magic by learning formae which are like shapes in your mind that have an effect on the physical universe. As you learn each one you associate it with a word, in Latin…. You make it so that the word and the forma become one in your mind. The first one you learn is Lux which makes light…. You make a spell…by stringing the formae together in a sequence." (Broken Homes, p. 94) As you can imagine, Peter spends a lot of time practicing the casting of formae. ~ From: Fang-tastic Fiction ✥ The gods are more like the personifications of localities—true Genius Loci than what we think of as gods. Suvudu Protagonist Peter Grant is a regular guy with a strain of sadness in his familial past. He is biracial in ethnicity: his father is a white failed jazz musician (a recovering alcoholic), and his mother is an African immigrant who cleans offices. Peter gets along relatively well with his parents but hasn't lived at home since before he began his police career. He feels that he has disappointed them by not doing well in college, having been derailed by his inability to focus, a trait that has dogged him all his life. Peter takes to his magical instruction with relish and begins to modernize Nightingale's lessons with technology, dragging the Folly—with Nightingale kicking and screaming all the way—into the 21st century. Peter narrates the books in the first person voice with a dry tone that is darkly humorous and always ironic. Some of Peter's jibes are aimed at various aspects of London life that may not be accessible to non-Londoners, but the stories are larded with enough flippant levity to bring smiles to readers who have never set foot on British soil. ~ From: Fang-tastic Fiction Maps *Temporarily Significant: Locations map; Whispers Under Ground *(blog has lots of useful tid-bits related to the books—sift through the "older posts") Book Cover Blurbs ✤ BOOK ONE BLURB—Rivers of London (2011): Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London's Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he'll face is a paper cut. But Peter's prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter's ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic. ~ Goodreads | Midnight Riot (Peter Grant, #1) ✰ My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to-and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluable, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England. Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden . . . and there's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair. The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos—or die trying. ~ FF ✤ BOOK TWO BLURB—Moon Over Soho (2011): London constable and apprentice Peter Grant suspects sorcery when Soho area musicians drop dead, their brain scans showing magical draining. Victim Cyrus left girlfriend Simone, who beds Peter. His dad "Lord Grant" taught him jazz, but master mage DCI Nightingale still recuperates, and a Pale Lady bites off essential bits for an animal chimera slave ring. ~ Goodreads | Moon Over Soho (Peter Grant, #2) by Ben Aaronovitch ✤ BOOK THREE BLURB—Whispers Under Ground (2012): A WHOLE NEW REASON TO MIND THE GAP It begins with a dead body at the far end of Baker Street tube station, all that remains of American exchange student James Gallagher—and the victim’s wealthy, politically powerful family is understandably eager to get to the bottom of the gruesome murder. The trouble is, the bottom—if it exists at all—is deeper and more unnatural than anyone suspects . . . except, that is, for London constable and sorcerer’s apprentice Peter Grant. With Inspector Nightingale, the last registered wizard in England, tied up in the hunt for the rogue magician known as “the Faceless Man,” it’s up to Peter to plumb the haunted depths of the oldest, largest, and—as of now—deadliest subway system in the world. At least he won’t be alone. No, the FBI has sent over a crack agent to help. She’s young, ambitious, beautiful . . . and a born-again Christian apt to view any magic as the work of the devil. Oh yeah—that’s going to go well. ~ Goodreads | Whispers Under Ground (Peter Grant, #3) by Ben Aaronovitch ✤ BOOK FOUR BLURB—Broken Homes (2013): My name is Peter Grant, and I am a keeper of the secret flame—whatever that is. Truth be told, there's a lot I still don't know. My superior Nightingale, previously the last of England's wizardly governmental force, is trying to teach me proper schooling for a magician's apprentice. But even he doesn't have all the answers. Mostly I'm just a constable sworn to enforce the Queen’s Peace, with the occasional help from some unusual friends and a well-placed fire blast. With the new year, I have three main objectives, a) pass the detective exam so I can officially become a DC, b) work out what the hell my relationship with Lesley Mai, an old friend from the force and now fellow apprentice, is supposed to be, and most importantly, c) get through the year without destroying a major landmark. — Two out of three isn’t bad, right? A mutilated body in Crawley means another murderer is on the loose. The prime suspect is one Robert Weil, who may either be a common serial killer or an associate of the twisted magician known as the Faceless Man—a man whose previous encounters I've barely survived. I've also got a case about a town planner going under a tube train and another about a stolen grimoire. But then I get word of something very odd happening in Elephant and Castle, on a housing estate designed by a nutter, built by charlatans, and inhabited by the truly desperate. If there's a connection to the Crawley case, I'll be entering some tricky waters of jurisdiction with the local river spirits. We have a prickly history, to say the least. Just the typical day for a magician constable. ~ Goodreads | Broken Homes (Peter Grant, #4) by Ben Aaronovitch ✤ BOOK FIVE BLURB—Foxglove Summer (Jan 2015): In the fifth of his bestselling series Ben Aaronovitch takes Peter Grant out of whatever comfort zone he might have found and takes him out of London - to a small village in Herefordshire where the local police are reluctant to admit that there might be a supernatural element to the disappearance of some local children. But while you can take the London copper out of London you can't take the London out of the copper. Travelling west with Beverley Brook Peter soon finds himself caught up in a deep mystery and having to tackle local cops and local gods. And what's more all the shops are closed by 4pm… ~ Goodreads | Foxglove Summer (Peter Grant, #5) by Ben Aaronovitch ✤ BOOK SIX - The Hanging Tree (Nov 19, 2015): ~ Goodreads | The Hanging Tree (Peter Grant, #6) by Ben Aaronovitch Back in London, Peter faces the legacy of London's hangings. Investigating suspicious murders in the world of the super-rich, Peter is in a different world to the one he is used to investigating. ✤ The Furthest Station '(novella) * In this novella, published in September 2017, Peter needs to deal with commuting ghosts, forgetful commuters, and deciphering a ghost's urgent message. ✤ '''Lies Sleeping ' (November 2018) * Peter continues the investigations into Martin Chorley. ✤ '''The October Man (June 2019 - novella) *Tobias Winter, the only apprentice in the "Abteilung Komplexe und diffuse Angelegenheiten" (KDA) (Department for Complex and Diffuse Matters - the German equivalent of the Folly) investigates a suspicious death in a vineyard near the Mosel. His local colleague is Vanessa Sommer, who is going to join the KDA in the end as well. Category:Series